Migrationsverket cuts asylum seeker estimates (Sweden)

The National Migration Board (Migrationsverket) believes that the number of asylum seekers in Sweden will decline to 29,000 in 2010 and 27,000 next year.
This is a decline from the May estimate of 31,000 in Sweden this year and 28,000 next year. The primary reason behind the adjustment is that the number of applicants from Somalia is no longer increasing at the same pace as before, the agency wrote.

The change means that the agency will have better conditions to continue efforts to shorten the waiting times for applicants. The average processing time is currently four and a half months, the shortest in 20 years.

At the same time, the agency also lowered its forecast for unaccompanied children by 400 to 2,400. However, more are expected this year and the need for places remains high. At mid-year, over 450 children were still waiting to be received in a municipality.

The forecast for the number of cases relating to work permits has increased. The agency estimates that it needs a significant cash injection for next year, 312 million kronor ($42.68 million) more than the government's current proposals.

The Local Sweden

Skilled migrants urgently needed, says minister (Germany)

With Germany industry facing a looming skills shortage, Economy Minister Rainer Brüderle revealed on Friday he was planning a major recruitment drive to attract skilled migrants.

That included encouraging German firms to pay cash incentives to lure foreign workers, he told daily Handelsblatt.

“The question of how Germany becomes lastingly attractive to skilled migrants is right at the top of my agenda,” he said.

Part of the plan encourages payment of Begrüßungsgeld or “welcome money” for guest workers.

“It is conceivable that some businesses who can afford it and have an urgent need, pay skilled foreign workers an incentive,” he said.

He ruled out, however, using taxpayers’ money to subsidise skilled migrants to relocated to Germany.

Economists agree that Germany’s export-driven economy, which relies heavily on skilled workers such as engineers to develop its high-end manufactured goods to sell overseas, will be gradually eroded in years to come by a dearth of such qualified professionals.

“The skills shortage, and not unemployment, will in the coming years be the key problem for the German job market,” Brüderle said.

The Local Germany

BNP faces fines for third accounts failure (UK)

The British National Party has failed to submit its 2009 accounts to the Electoral Commission, the third time the fascist party has been late.

The Electoral Commission said today: “The British National Party and the party’s Regional Accounting Unit were both granted an extension to the deadline for submitting their statements of accounts. Both have failed to deliver their accounts within the extended deadline so the party will be fined a minimum of £500 and the accounting unit will be fined a minimum £100, this figure will increase if the accounts are more than three months late.”

The 2008 accounts, which were submitted nearly six months late, remain under investigation by the Electoral Commission because the auditors reported that they did not give a true and fair view and did not “comply with the requirements of the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000 as adequate records have not been made available”.

At the time, Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, described the accounts as “inadequate”. In his introduction to the 2008 accounts Griffin claimed that “the task of maintaining central office accounts had become too big for any one individual”. However, he continued, the problem had now been solved because the job had been “outsourced” to “an independent Chartered Accountant and Accounts Technician with the aim of presenting acceptable accounts for the accounting year 2009”.

The independent chartered accountant was John Thompson, a close business associate of Jim Dowson, the man whose web of financial links with the BNP is such that he in effect “owns” the BNP.

The failure to submit accounts will add to Dowson’s unpopularity with many BNP members and plays into the hands of Eddy Butler, who is currently trying to collect enough nominations to challenge Griffin for the party leadership. Butler’s response was: “Nick Griffin has brought disgrace upon the BNP yet again. There is only one way that you can change this. Sign the nomination form and vote for change.”

That the accounts have not appeared was no surprise to Searchlight. Given the BNP’s huge liabilities as a result of Griffin’s long list of reckless legal actions, the party’s independent auditors are likely to have had difficulty certifying that the BNP is a “going concern”.

In recent years, although the party has been insolvent, the auditors have assumed it can meet its liabilities by raiding the funds of its groups and branches, something with which many local officers are unhappy. Now, the liabilities are so big that branch funds are not enough, and many branch treasurers have adopted measures to keep head office’s hands off their money.

An organisation that is not a “going concern” cannot operate unless it pays for all goods and services in advance, something the BNP does not have the money to do.

Many party members are beginning to realise that although Dowson has raised unprecedented sums in donations, Griffin has been spending far more on madnesses such as using an image of Marmite on a BNP election broadcast, which attracted an injunction from Unilever, defending indefensible unfair dismissal claims from former employees and dragging out his response to the Equality Commission’s action over the party’s racist constitution to the extent that the legal costs are believed to be running at £300,000 so far.

Another problem the auditors might have had is that the party apparently no longer owns any of its assets. One of the sections of the new BNP constitution that Griffin slipped in without telling anyone states that all the party’s assets belong to the so-called Founders’ Association. That body is not defined in the constitution but it is understood to be all BNP members who joined before the new constitution came into effect in February and are still members. If the party does not own its assets, they cannot correctly be included in its accounts, which would greatly increase the party’s insolvency.

The BNP, however, is hoping its members will keep their heads firmly in the sand. The day before it emerged that the party’s accounts were missing, Dave Hannam, the party treasurer, sent out an email listing all the party’s financial achievements but admitting that he had been forced to implement new stringent financial controls and submit to monthly inspection of his “treasury office” by “an outside accountant”.

According to Hannam the party lacked “financial stability”. One reason was: “the large number of court cases launched at this party in a deliberate attempt to derail us,” skating over the fact that almost all the legal costs were entirely the fault of the BNP. Another reason was “a general lack of accountability with regards to the National Treasurer and his office”. And it had been “discovered that some officials has incurred expenditure that was both unauthorised and previously unknown to the Treasury department”.

In other words, Hannam had been as incompetent as most people, other than Griffin, Dowson and their sycophants, always knew he was from the time he first became the party’s deputy treasurer.

The email said nothing about the 2009 accounts being late, appealed for new regional treasurers – in other words new people Hannam can blame the next time it all goes wrong – and ended with a “donate” button, in the hope that the party’s stupid supporters will throw more money into Griffin’s bottomless pit.

Hope Not Hate

STEEP FALL IN BIRTH RATE FOR MINORITIES (Denmark)

The latest figures from Statistics Denmark have revealed that women from non-Western immigrant groups are now having fewer children than their white Danish counterparts. Twenty years ago women from ethnic minorities had twice as many children as their Danish sisters, but by 2009 their birth rate had fallen to just 1.6 children per woman, below the 1.9 rate for Danes. Garbi Schmidt, a senior researcher in Islamic studies at the Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI) pointed out a number of explanations for this trend. Speaking to Kristeligt Dagbladet newspaper, she said: ‘One explanation is that women from ethnic minorities are waiting to have children because they are getting an education. At the moment there is a great focus on education and many are extremely ambitious about what they want to achieve in the educational system.’ Another explanation is that minorities are beginning to behave in the same way as the general population with regard to marriage, starting families and getting an education, she added. ‘This means that women from ethnic minorities are waiting longer before starting a family.’ The stricter rules now in force regarding residence permits for foreign-born spouses also make it more difficult for immigrants to marry people from their home country, Schmidt said. Last year SFI carried out a study among immigrant groups and discovered that minorities were delaying marriage as a direct result of the ‘24-year rule’. The rule, which has been part of immigration legislation since May 2002, stipulates that ‘naturalised citizens’ must have lived in Denmark for at least 24 years before being allowed to bring their spouse here.

cphpost

ROMANIA TO COOPERATE WITH FRANCE ON ROMA ROW

Bucharest will not abandon its citizens abroad and will better cooperate with France on its plans to tackle illegal immigration, Romanian authorities have said, following an announcement from Paris that the government would dismantle some 300 illegal Roma/Gypsy camps across the country. "Our main interest is to help integrate Romanian citizens abroad, whatever their ethnicity is. But the social inclusion of Roma people is not only a Romanian issue," Prime Minister Emil Boc said on Thursday. France on Wednesday announced it would step up measures agains illegal immigration, including the deportation of Roma people from illegal camps in a move the government said is aimed at cracking down on increasing crime and urban violence. The move has prompted a significant reaction in France, where human rights groups and the main opposition Socialist party have denounced the measures, calling them racist and xenophobic. A press release from the French Presidency calls the illegal camps "sources of illegal trafficking, of profoundly shocking living standards, of exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime". It added that new legislation would be introduced soon to make the expulsion from France of illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe easier, "for reasons of public order".
Paris made the move after riots erupted in two French towns over the weekend, one of which involved an attack on a police station by a group of Roma people angered after police shot a fellow traveller. In his press release, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said that he would ask the French National Assembly to vote on an agreement between France and Romania that would facilitate the return of unaccompanied Roma minors back to Romania. He also said that France would undertake a cooperation effort with Romania to fight against trafficking and allow for the return of Roma people from France to Bulgaria and Romania. The project would involve cooperation between French and Bulgarian and Romanian police, Sarkozy explained. An estimated 15,000 Roma people, also known as "gypsies" and "travellers", live in France, many in squalid shantytowns on the fringes of cities. Many of them come from Romania, but also from Bulgaria, both EU countries. Although these Roma people are European Union citizens, critics say they are often treated like a sub-class of immigrants and targeted by police.

Balkan Insight

FAR-RIGHT NPD UPS ANTE WITH MEDIA OFFENSIVE IN EASTERN GERMAN STATE

Far-right nationalists in the German state of Thuringia are seeking to reach a wider audience by founding five new newspapers in the region. The worrying move by the National Democratic Party (NPD) is aimed at capturing more voters. The publications purport to address regional issues, running headlines such as "Is Erfurt broke?", "Venturing more democracy," and "Schools are the future." But behind this veneer of seemingly harmless headlines lies the NPD's true agenda. "The NPD's ideology is communicated above all else in these articles," said Stefan Heerdegen of the Mobile Council in Thuringia for Democracy - Against Right-wing Extremism, based in the state's capital, Erfurt. "There is always a hostility towards democracy being piggybacked [in these stories]," said Heerdegen. The NPD is the official political arm of the right-wing neo-Nazi movement in Germany. It is often involved in far-right extremist marches and is widely opposed throughout the country. There have been numerous attempts to have it banned from German politics. Its existence is permitted through somewhat of a legal loophole. The party is allowed to operate because its founding documents pledge allegiance to the German constitution, unlike other far-right and far-left parties that have been banned.

Racist messages
Stefan Kausch, a political scientist who works with the Forum for Critical Research of Right-wing Extremism, said "the topics of the articles are connected with the party's objectives - racist ideologies are repeatedly conveyed." An example of this is given in an NPD article on municipal finances: "Instead of prescribing to the protection of identity, sovereignty and solidarity of Germans," the article reads, "The anti-German political cartel instigates a well-planned policy [serving the] interests of foreigners, foreign countries and high finance." Heerdegen says the far-right party is trying to use the new publications to position itself as the lone voice of political opposition in Germany. "And so these are NPD newspapers, not true newspapers in the sense of journalistic seriousness," he said.

New take, old idea
Publishing regional newspapers is not new for the far-right. Since 2001, publications such as the Inselboten, a regional paper in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, have been in print. The state's largest city, Rostock, is home to the right-wing Rostocker Boten, while a far-right newspaper can also be found in the city of Trier, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Pre-election periods usually see an increase in the number of these far-right publications. "We have also noticed this [in the eastern city of] Leipzig," said Kausch. "However, these publications don't last." Two exceptions to the short-lived nature of many right-wing newspapers are the Wartburgkreisbote and Der Rennsteigbote in Thuringia. In its 14th edition the former printed 22,000 copies, according to the NPD District Council Chairman and the paper's publisher, Patrick Wieschke. "The new regional papers are financed in mixed ways," said Wieschke. The lion's share comes from the NPD's associations at the state level, but local groups must also pay up, he says.

Parliamentary push
The NPD in Thuringia wants to use its five new publications to strengthen its grass-roots movement and create the conditions for entry to state parliament in 2014, says Wieschke. In 2009, the party only marginally failed to garner the 5 percent of votes needed for representation. The right-wing party says it wants to appeal to common voters by focusing on local issues in the hope this will demonstrate some kind of capacity to serve communities. The front and back sheets of the four-page publications attempt to deal with local issues and differ from paper to paper. The inner two pages, however, are identical in each of the five publications. Most Germans still view the NPD as embodying the neo-Nazi movement, and the new publications are unlikely to sway voters from these firmly held positions.

DW-World

SWITZERLAND FINED FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION

For years, the two women were not allowed to live with their husbands. On Thursday, the court announced that both women would be awarded €5,000 (SFr6,800) in compensation. Both the women and their husbands – all Ethiopian – came to Switzerland independently and sought asylum between 1994 and 1998. While awaiting the decision, the women were sent to cantons Saint Gallen and Bern, the men to canton Vaud. After their asylum applications were turned down, the Ethiopian authorities blocked them from returning home. During their continued stay in Switzerland, the women met and married their countrymen in Lausanne in 2002 and 2003. However, the Federal Migration Office refused to re-assign the women to canton Vaud so that they could live with their new husbands. The authorities said that a change of canton was against policy for rejected asylum candidates. The woman living in Saint Gallen decided to move to Lausanne anyway, but was eventually arrested and sent back in handcuffs in 2003. The canton also withdrew her welfare payments. Both women were finally permitted to join their husbands in canton Vaud in 2008. In response to their complaints, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland had violated the European Convention on Human Rights by preventing the spouses from living together.


SwissInfo

Hate crime accusations fly as white man beaten 'for listening to rap music' (America)

A BLACK Palm Bay teenager could be charged with a hate crime after being accused of attacking a white man because he was listening to rap music.

Joshuah Lamb, 14, allegedly punched 22-year-old David McKnight because he did not think white people should listen to that type of music, Florida police were quoted as saying on WFTV.com.

Mr McKnight had been on the sidewalk listening to Wasted by Gucci Mane on a stereo before the incident.

“The argument involved the black male suspect saying, ‘You shouldn't be listening to rap music because you're white.’" Palm Bay police spokeswoman Yvonne Martinez said.

"The victim said he can listen to whatever type of music he wanted to and then the fist fight was on.”

Mr McKnight said he did not fight back.

“I couldn't get away fast enough, let’s just put it that way. Then one of them spit on me, punched me, knocked me down, got a couple of kicks in from a couple of them,” he said.

Mr Lamb was reportedly with seven friends at the time.

“I told him to drop it. I was like, ‘Just drop it, let's go, there is eight of you and one of me. Just drop it.’ And he says, ‘I'm not dropping anything.’ Bam! Punched me,” Mr McKnight said.

“I feel it's a racial thing really,” he added.

Mr McKnight suffered a broken toe, concussion, a swollen eye and strangulation marks around his neck.

Officers later arrested Mr Lamb on battery charges and he was now being held in a juvenile detention centre.

State prosecutors were now deciding if he would be charged with a hate crime.

Herald Sun

3 men in racist YouTube assault found guilty (Canada)

Three men who attacked a black man in a swarming that went viral on YouTube have been found guilty of assault by a judge who says "the acid fog of racism" permeates the case.

Provincial Court Judge Peter Doherty said Thursday that one of the men who pummelled Jay Phillips, 39, yelled a racial slur when he was confronted in Courtenay, B.C., last July.

"The three young white men, fuelled by alcohol and testosterone and their own immaturity, crossed paths with a black man and lives changed forever," Doherty told a packed courtroom.

Doherty concluded that David White, 19, called Phillips "nigger" as he sat in the back of a truck leaving a restaurant while his co-accused, Robert William Roger and Adam David Huber, both 25, sat in a cab as they saw Phillips standing in a nearby parking lot.

The trial heard Huber believed Phillips was a drug dealer in the Vancouver Island town.

"In the end it does not matter one way or the other to the issue at hand except to note that Mr. Huber, when confronting Mr. Phillips, thought he was high on something," Doherty said. "I think he was just in a rage."

After White yelled the racial slur, Phillips threw a water bottle at the truck, prompting Huber to ask Phillips if he'd tossed something at the vehicle.
"Mr. Huber, unable to walk a mile in the shoes of Mr. Phillips, let alone stand in them for one moment, repeated the question several times," Doherty said.

White also threatened to kill Phillips and his entire family.

"What Mr. White said was ugly, racist and provoking," Doherty said. "It is not surprising then, that Mr. Phillips reacted by throwing a water bottle at the receding truck."

Court heard the three men spent the day tubing and drinking before the attack on Phillips, which was videoed by a man from his balcony.

"As I have observed in other cases, it has been my experience that the collective IQ of young men, filled with testosterone and alcohol, declines with the numbers involved," Doherty said. "In relation to the three accused, that certainly proved to be the case."

White and Rogers kicked Phillips at least five times, Doherty said.

"The kicks applied to Mr. Phillips while he was on the ground were beyond the consensual nature of the fight," he said. "They were applied with force and I infer they were intended to cause, and did in fact cause, bodily harm."

Phillips was not in court to hear the verdict after having testified in the trial for two days.

"Jay chose to stay away from this," his mother, Kirsten Phillips, said outside court. "He did not want to be a part of it."
"Racism is here as it is everywhere," she said. "People should be allowed to walk around parking lots and not be assaulted. A lot of people are angry about this," she said of the town where residents staged a rally against the attack last summer.

A date for sentencing the three men will be set on Aug. 12.

ctvbc

SWASTIKA IS DEEMED ‘UNIVERSAL’ HATE SYMBOL (usa)

The swastika now shows up so often as a generic symbol of hatred that the Anti-Defamation League, in its annual tally of hate crimes against Jews, will no longer automatically count its appearance as an act of anti-Semitism. “The swastika has morphed into a universal symbol of hate,” said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization. “Today it’s used as an epithet against African-Americans, Hispanics and gays, as well as Jews, because it is a symbol which frightens.” Observing the trend, he said that his group had decided it would examine reports of scrawled swastikas for contextual clues. If it appears Jews were not the target, the incident will not be included in the league’s annual audit of anti-Semitic hate crimes. “A year ago, there was a swastika put on Plymouth Rock,” Mr. Foxman said in an interview. “We saw it as a symbol of hatred against America, maybe against immigrants, I don’t know. But to count that swastika as an anti-Semitic incident would not be accurate.” Using the new measure, the Anti-Defamation League logged 1,211 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States in 2009. It included 422 cases of anti-Semitic vandalism like swastika graffiti, as well as violent episodes like the murder of a security guard at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

The tally was down from 2008, which found 1,352 incidents — in part because of the new approach to swastikas. (The group is considering whether to issue a separate report on swastika incidents that were excluded from its audit). The change was first reported by The Jewish Week, a New York news weekly. The swastika symbol, a symmetrical, hooked cross sacred to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, was appropriated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party and became the defining motif of anti-Jewish hatred. It is still the contemporary calling card of many neo-Nazi groups. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish educational and human rights group based in Los Angeles, said he understood the reasoning behind the Anti-Defamation League’s move. “The swastika is shorthand for every racist and bigot on the planet,” Rabbi Cooper said. “It is amazing that 60 or 70 years later that symbol has not lost any of its potency.”

NY Times